The Briefing: Salesforce Buying Slack For $27.7B, Bizzabo Raises $138M, And More

Here’s what you need to know today in startup and venture news, updated by the Crunchbase News staff throughout the day to keep you in the know.

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Salesforce to buy Slack for $27.7B

Salesforce 1 announced an agreement to acquire workplace messaging app Slack for $27.7 billion in a mostly cash deal.

The acquisition price marks a premium of about $2.7 billion over Slack’s most recent public market valuation. Shares of the San Francisco-based company surged in the days leading up to the Salesforce announcement, amid anticipation that a deal would come to fruition.

Slack itself is a relative newcomer to the public markets. The 11-year-old company completed its IPO in June 2019, after raising $1.4 billion in venture and growth financing as a private company.

The merger agreement announcement coincides with Salesforce’s third-quarter earnings report, in which the enterprise software giant posted revenue of $5.42 billion, up 20 percent from a year ago. Salesforce also had net income of $1.08 billion and earnings per share of $1.15, well above analyst estimates.

The Slack deal marks the priciest known purchase for Salesforce, which is an active acquirer of software companies. To date, Salesforce has made at least 65 known acquisitions, per Crunchbase data, including five this year.

Funding rounds

Bizzabo raises $138M for conference platform: New York-based Bizzabo, provider of an online platform for operating virtual or in-person conferences, has raised $138 million in a Series E round led by Insight Partners.
Amount closes on $81M for digital banking: Amount, providing digital technology to financial institutions, secured an $81 million Series C investment led by Goldman Sachs Growth.
Virta Health brings in $65M for diabetes treatments: Virta Health, developing treatments to reversing type 2 diabetes without medications or surgery, raised $65 million in Series D funding led by Sequoia Capital Global Equities.
Genesis Therapeutics raises $52M for drug discovery: Genesis Therapeutics, a developer of artificial intelligence technology used in drug development, has raised $52 million in a Series A funding round.
Step closes $50M for teen mobile-banking app: Step, a financial services company that builds mobile-based banking for teenagers, raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Coatue.
AgentSync raises $6.7M to scale insurtech tools: AgentSync, which is developing tools and infrastructure for the insurance industry, announced $6.7 million in additional seed funding to bring the total raised to $11 million. Craft Ventures led the round.
Supergreat inks $6.5M for beauty app: Supergreat, a community-based app for beauty enthusiasts, announced $6.5 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark.
Orbit raises $4M to scale community experience platform: Orbit, a startup developing tools to help organizations build communities around their proprietary and open-source products, announced $4 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.